Tuesday, August 18, 2009

You Keep Using That Word . . .

health care, christian, jesus, fail, obama, reform,
Harry R. Jackson, Jr. of Townhall.com keeps using the word "moral" in a way that makes me think he doesn't have any idea what that word means. Which is a little strange, because Mr. Jackson is a Bishop. Bishop Harry Jackson is chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition and senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, MD, and co-authored, Personal Faith, Public Policy [FrontLine; March 2008] with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.


This week I was shocked by the news that a long list of “progressive” the sarcastiquotes mean they're not! ministers came out in support of the administration’s healthcare plan. They claim that universal health care is a moral issue. yes, not allowing poor people to die solely because they are poor is indeed a moral issue. it must be embarrassing to need an atheist to tell you these things. Their belief is based on a very superficial social, moral, and economic analysis. they said that universal health care is a "moral issue". when did economic analysis come into play? Contrary to their assertion, the Church has never historically viewed healthcare as the government’s responsibility. yes, actually it has. (i just linked to a catholic website. to support my point of view. freakyweird.)


blahblahblah Encyclopedia Britannica blahblahblah Christians built all the hospitals blahblahblah


With the community in mind, I would advocate a healthcare system that responsibly reaches out to the poor and needy. got a thousand page plan to go with that? Unfortunately, the administration’s proposals (as it they now stands stand) would result in lessening the overall quality of care. i don't need proof: i've got bald assertions! While this sounds acceptable in theory, lessening overall quality of care sounds acceptable in theory? really? it is impractical. The delay or denial of surgery or treatment for some patients would become a death sentence. sure, but how do we know that's going to happen? and now, a link to rapture ready in which several British and Canadian rapturites defend their health care systems. (i just linked to rapture ready. to support my point of view. if you see four horses in the sky- run!)


blahblahblah scare tactic blahblahblah


How moral is it to create a healthcare system in which the sickest patients, no matter their income, are not tended to? if that were the health care system being proposed, that would be immoral. it's not. Everyone in the nation will agree that we should help as many people as we can and that there should be realistic limits on how much is spent on a single patient. sure, we can all agree on that. So why did “progressive” clergy side with the President? is there any real connection between the three preceding sentences, other than they were all written by the same person? anyone?


First of all, I believe they wrongly used a broad-brush assessment of a very complex situation.
pot, meet kettle. Nowhere does scripture imply that the rich who are sick should not be visited or that the lower middle class sick person should be counted less worthy of help than the abjectly poor. and that has fuck all to do with the proposed health care bill? i'm sorry, did i miss the Liberal Agenda(tm) meeting in which we agreed to use health care reform to kill off all but the most poor? I would argue that Jesus calls us to value all life – not simply the value of the lives of the poor versus the lives of the rich. The question we should be asking is this: “Is my life worth less because I am worth more?” The answer is obviously: no. what. the. fuck. does this have to do with proposed health care reform? oh, wait, nothing. this is a scare tactic. he's counting on the fact that no one who reads this article is truly, desperately poor, therefore everyone reading it will now think, "well, fuck, i ain't dyin' for them trailer park bastards!"


is it moral to mislead people and incite class warfare, Mr. Jackson?


The second faulty assumption these clergymen make is that if you live in the right zip code, you can afford whatever the additional price of health services. The president has publicly acknowledged that many people go bankrupt because of “healthcare bills gone wild,” but somehow “progressive” ministers seem to think that “rich” people can just come up with the money. because jesus never said to give your money to the poor. and a tax rate significantly lower than taxes under Reagan will ruin us all. (what bible is this guy reading from?)


Third, under the currently proposal, the administration wants to create a Robin-Hood-like healthcare system. The system will take from the rich and give to the poor. Although the concept works well in speeches, it is flawed. Imagine a 30-year old homeless man receiving a pacemaker that has been paid for by revenue that came from denying my friend Arnie his vital surgery. Our nation cannot place a higher value on one of these lives versus the other. yes, that's exactly what's going to happen. Liberals: greatly opposed to people named Arnie. then again, who isn't? and why should homeless guys get pacemakers? I mean, c'mon now, they're homeless. what are they going to do with that pacemaker? that's right- buy booze.


blahblahblah ABORTION!!!1!!!eleventy!!!! blahblahblah


Is it moral that every healthcare premium I pay for my 50 employees will finance abortions, when these monies are coming from the tithes and offerings of people that believe that killing a fetus is murder? here's a funny fact: your healthcare premiums already do finance abortions, because health insurance does pay for abortions when the life of the mother is at risk, so suck it! plus, weren't you just bitching about taxes? is it premiums or taxes? Is it moral that elderly people are afraid that the plug will be pulled on them? no, but since you're the one scaring the elderly people . . . Can we guarantee them that their lives are worth as much as anyone else’s? funny you should mention that, since at the moment 47,000,000 people's lives are not worth as much as yours.


The answers to the questions I just posed are obvious to everyone but you. The administration’s healthcare plan is flawed at best. your post: failtacular! I want to encourage all Americans to challenge their congressmen to vote against the bill as it stands. Let’s slow down the Obama express and create reform that we can really believe in! reform that preserves the lives, and money, of the rich. oh, wait, i'm not sure that's reform, exactly.

7 comments:

  1. Dumb question. Wouldn't the "Obama Express" actually have to be, y'know, moving to get slowed down?

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  2. Yeah, I'm not sure we can call it the "Express" anymore.

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  3. It's so obviously not about embryos. You never hear anyone on the right arguing that people shouldn't have to pay for their government's wars - it's about a) controlling women and b) their own conscience > everyone else's.

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  4. i am becoming convinced that the Right-fundy-wingnuts actually want me dead...


    seriously? and in the grand scheme of things, my medical issues aren't all that bad. there are hundreds of thousands of people who are worse off then i am, with even *less* access to medical in this country - hell, probably jut this *State*.

    fucktards.

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  5. I liked the commentary style of this post. I'll remember to do that in the near future when debunking a really bad article.

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  6. Oh yeah, I'm uninsured, but the City of San Francisco offers free medical checkups and drugs. The hospital I go to is really crummy looking, but the staff is top notch. I never got such good medical attention before in my life until I went on the Healthy San Francisco plan. Now I see a primary care physician every 2 months or so.

    Medical covers my psychiatric treatment programs and psychiatric drugs. HMOs like Kaiser offer nothing like the level of care I get while here. I have 24/7 staff taking care of me right now.

    The only thing that sucks is that I don't have dental. :/

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  7. So this is super late, as I cruise through the archives. But the formulation: "Is my life worth less because I am worth more?" is really worrisome. Yes, it's rhetorically neat. But it contains exactly the implicit assumption of classism by the wealthy: that wealth and worth are equivalent.

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Comments are for you guys, not for me. Say what you will. Don't feel compelled to stay on topic, I enjoy it when comments enter Tangentville or veer off into Non Sequitur Town. Just keep it polite, okay?

I am attempting to use blogger's new comment spam feature. If you don't immediately see your comment, it is being held in spam, I will get it out next time I check the filter. Unless you are Dennis Markuze, in which case you're never seeing your comment.

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